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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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October 28th, 2006 - Heat is on
Rest of Hamdania Defendants to Plead News article by the North County Times |
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Heat is on Rest of Hamdania
Defendants to Plead By Mark Walker North County Times October 28, 2006 North County - Pressure to
resolve their cases without going to trial is mounting on the remaining six
defendants in the slaying of an Iraqi civilian last spring, the mother of one
of the Marines charged in the case said Friday. "Things are getting
pretty hard on the men," Diann Shumate said. "They are getting
scared and there's a lot of pressure being put on them to take a plea
deal." Her son, Lance Cpl. Jerry
Shumate Jr., faces a court-martial early next year, as do four others from
the 2nd platoon of Kilo Company attached to Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion,
5th Marine Regiment. A decision on whether the
unit leader, Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, will be ordered to trial is expected
in the next few days. Shumate said the pressure is
also getting more intense on the men's family members to come up with the
money to pay their sons' civilian attorneys and to travel to Camp Pendleton
on weekends to visit them in the brig. "It's been a long time
since this started," she said in reference to the troops being jailed in
late May and charged with murder, kidnapping, conspiracy and related offenses
in June. "Finances are running low, and it's all just been really hard
lately." Fueling the angst for the
six Marines and their families are the guilty pleas prosecutors reached with
two defendants, Navy Petty Officer Melson Bacos, the squad's medical
corpsman, and Pfc. John Jodka III, an Encinitas native. Jodka pleaded guilty Thursday
to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice in the April 26
killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, who was shot to death by members of the squad
in the Iraqi village of Hamdania. Jodka will be sentenced Nov.
15 during a hearing that will reveal the terms of the deal he made. Shumate said during a
telephone interview from her home in Washington state that she has no ill
will toward Bacos or Jodka, who must testify against the other defendants if
prosecutors call upon them. "I don't blame them for
doing what they did," she said. "I can totally understand why - I
just feel bad that it has come to this." Steven Immel, Shumate's
attorney, declined comment when asked if a plea deal is in the works for his
client. Joseph Low, attorney for
Cpl. Marshall Magincalda, said there was no plea deal on the table for his
client. He acknowledged that the prosecution has additional armor with the
implicating statements made by Jodka and Bacos. Each testified that all of
the men willingly participated in a planned kidnapping and killing, and did
so knowing they were breaking the law. "Everything is
difficult in this case," Low said. "It was difficult for the men
who took a plea deal because I know they didn't want to do so, but were
scared. "It's a difficult case
for the Marine Corps, a difficult case for the families, and a difficult case
for the nation." The Marine Corps will not
comment on whether negotiations continue with the defendants. Gary Solis, a former Marine
legal officer who now teaches military law at Georgetown University in
Washington, D.C., said the defense attorneys face a steep challenge. "There's not much
stronger evidence than the testimony of an eyewitness participant,"
Solis said, noting that the Jodka and Bacos plea agreements require they
testify truthfully or see their deals withdrawn. "Their pleas mean the
attorney now can't defend on the facts - they have to raise some other
defense, such as they thought they were shooting a lawful target." Each Saturday since shortly
after the men were incarcerated, a group of people have held rallies at Camp
Pendleton's main gate. One of the organizers, Christine Bruce, said the
rallies were not necessarily focused on guilt or innocence. "We started our rallies
because of the conditions they were being held in at the start," she
said in reference to troops initially being shackled when they met with
attorneys and family members and forced to eat their meals in their cells. The pickets believe the rallies
helped lead to a removal of those restrictions, Bruce said. "We never said that
these guys didn't do this," she said. "We said they are innocent
until proven guilty and we wanted them treated fairly. We respect the system
and any findings that come out." Don Greenlaw, a retired
Oceanside resident and former Marine who has helped raise money for the men's
defense, is going to visit the accused troops today, something he does
routinely to help keep their spirits up and address any needs they may have. "The only thing I can
say to these guys now is that they are the only ones who know what really
happened and to make sure they are telling their attorneys and their families
the absolute truth." External link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/28/news/top_stories/23_00_2910_27_06.txt How do military personnel
handle illegal orders in war? By Mark Sauer and Rick Rogers San Diego Union-Tribune October 28, 2006 The notion is drilled into
his skull from the moment a prospective Marine first gets his locks sheared
to the time his boots hit the ground in a war zone like Iraq: You will obey
orders. But what if the order is to
commit kidnapping and murder? That's what Marine Corps
prosecutors allege in the case of eight Camp Pendleton-based servicemen
accused of killing a civilian on April 26 in Hamdaniya. The charges could
result in life imprisonment for some of the suspects. Two of the defendants,
including an Encinitas Marine who testified Thursday, have corroborated the
prosecution's assertion that a sergeant told his unit to abduct and execute a
suspected insurgent. Legal analysts, combat
veterans and a former Marine drill instructor said military law is clear: An
illegal order, especially one likely to result in injury or death, should not
be obeyed. But they caution that
civilians 9,000 miles removed from the bloody chaos of Iraq may not
understand the enormous psychological pressure, and fear for safety, bearing
down on a young Marine to go along with what his leader and buddies decide. “Nothing in civilian life
can prepare you for the moment when a guy who may have saved your life one
day asks you to do something illegal the next,” said Jon Soltz, a captain in
the Army Reserve and an Iraq war veteran. According to testimony early
this month from Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos, Sgt. Lawrence
Hutchins III masterminded the plot resulting in the death of 52-year-old
Hashim Ibrahim Awad. Every member of his squad
agreed to go along, said Bacos, a Navy corpsman who said he witnessed the
killing as a medic for the Marines. The men failed to find their
intended target, alleged insurgent Saleh Gowad, at his home. So they went
next door and abducted Awad, according to the charges and Bacos' testimony. The unit's members then
staged a firefight by firing their rifles, along with a stolen AK-47 rifle,
multiple times. The stolen AK-47 and a shovel were left with the victim's
body in a shallow hole to make it look as though Awad was burying a roadside
bomb, prosecutors allege. Pfc. John J. Jodka III, the
Encinitas Marine, largely corroborated Bacos' account this week. He admitted
to shooting at the victim, but didn't know if his bullets struck him. Awad had takenat least 13
rounds in the head and chest, court documents show. The idea of Marines agreeing
to testify against their comrades might surprise some people. That's because
the fierce loyalty and tight bonds among troops in combat are all but
boundless, said Vic Ditchkoff, a former Marine drill instructor. On the other hand, he said,
Marines are taught that if they follow an order they know is unlawful, they
are as guilty as the man who issued it. The importance of ethical
conduct starts in Marine boot camp, where recruits are taught moral and
physical courage during their 13 weeks of basic training. The recruits begin
to treat one another as friends and family. Later in combat, they “will
sometimes commit the most dastardly deeds to protect these friendships,” said
Ditchkoff, president of the USMC Drill Instructors Association, based at
Parris Island, S.C. It has a chapter in San Diego. “Maybe your buddies suddenly
will not watch your back if you squeal,” he said. “There are many cases in
government files of this sort of thing. You'd be surprised how many
friendlies are killed by their own troops. Fragging is what it's called, and
it's very easy to do when rounds are flying.” David Brahms of Carlsbad, a
retired Marine brigadier general and attorney for one of the Hamdaniya
suspects, said military law “does not let you hide behind the defense that
you were just following orders.” In combat unit But he said he believes
there's probably no other situation comparable to the decision to follow
orders in a combat unit. “You follow orders because
you want to live, and you've got the best chance to live by sticking
together. This is not a debating society. Those who question a lot of things
and think too much end up having their names engraved on a black wall in
Washington, D.C.,” Brahms said. Orange County attorney Tom
Umberg, a former military prosecutor and colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve,
said the military focuses heavily on the chain of command and responsibility. “The sergeant in this
incident may have a very different view (from Bacos and Jodka) about how this
thing evolved, but he is the senior person there,” Umberg said. The argument that troops
were simply following orders was made after the My Lai massacre, said Paul
Kurtz, referring reference to the killing of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians
by U.S. soldiers in March 1968. Kurtz is chairman and
founder of the Center for Inquiry Transnational, an Amherst, N.Y., think tank
concerned with war and other questions of morality. To Kurtz, there is a link
between the current spate of criminal charges against U.S. military personnel
and the ferocity of Iraq's urban battlefields, where the enemy is as
unrecognizable as the mission to weary Marines. “This situation . . . plays
a role in the tragedies we are seeing. These servicemen are innocent kids
thrown into a maelstrom,” said Kurtz, 80, a World War II veteran whose
grandson is a two-tour Marine veteran of Iraq. By volunteers In contrast to some other
major conflicts in U.S. history, the fighting in Iraq is being conducted by
volunteer armed forces that are stretched dangerously thin, suffering from
the toll of multiple deployments and compromised by lowered standards for
promotion, said Jon Soltz. He is a co-founder of VoteVets.org, an
Internet-based group dedicated to electing veterans of the conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan to Congress. “You have some guys in
charge of combat troops now who do not have the mentality to be in charge,
but they're so short of people,” said Soltz, who lives in New York. “Look at World War II. In
that four-year war, members of the Army's 101st Airborne Division never saw
combat until D-Day (June 6, 1944) and the war (in Europe) was over less than
a year later. Some Marines from Pendleton are in their third tour in Iraq.” Combat can be a moral
crucible, but in the end, every service member knows what is ethically right,
said Maj. Doug Zembiec, a company commander in Fallujah during the first
battle for that city in spring 2004. “There is no doubt that
people in combat are under a lot of stress and pressure – they are getting
shot at and bombed every day. But that is never an excuse for unlawful
conduct,” said Zembiec, now assigned to the Marine Corps in Washington. “We know as leaders that one
incident can destroy the mission no matter how many bad guys are killed,” he
said. “One incident can cast a bad light on the nation and Marine Corps.” External link:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20061028-9999-1n28obey.html |